So the ever talented Sandra Choi (Jimmy Choo’s creative director) must have been feeling rebellious for this season!

The luxury shoe label debuted its spring ’18 men’s collection during Milan Fashion Week this month and the shoes take cues from the mod style subculture popularized in the 1960s. Choi channeled individuality and youthfulness, taking typically classic dress styles and infusing them with bold, unexpected details.

“The mod movement is a key style subculture that still resonates today,” said Choi. “It’s a declaration of individuality through razor-sharp smartness. … And it was a movement that was open — different style tribes adopted it, then evolved it in their own ways.”

Key highlights this season include the graphic woven leathers used on both dress loafers and laceups. The Tim loafer features a sleek toe shape that references the silhouettes of 1960s shoes, but for a dash of now, Choi added semi-precious stone embellishments such as turquoise. Because bling is in.

Choi also played with hybrid styles for spring. The Finn boat shoe is finished with a rubberized cork sole and has a two-tone leather upper. There is also a lace-up espadrille style, which doubles as a mule with its collapsible backing. Perfect for beach season. The label also debuted a new boot silhouette this season, fittingly called the Jimi. It bears a slight heel — men’s heels continue to be on the rise — and comes in both a smooth leather finish or an embossed snakeskin.

In addition, the collection continued its sneaker push, introducing new versions of its Ace sneaker. This season it came with star embellishments, croc-printed leather, or chevron studs.

We’re impressed, what about you?

In other news, Tamara Mellon is focusing on ecommerce and going direct to consumers as she looks beyond Jimmy Choo (still so sad about this).

Tamara Mellon might have helped turn Jimmy Choo into a multimillion pound luxury business but she still feels a need to prove herself. That is part of the reason why she is relaunching her eponymous shoe brand, Tamara Mellon.

“I think I probably still have something to prove. In all honesty, I am trying to prove that Jimmy Choo wasn’t an accident,” she said, speaking at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in London yesterday (12 June). “Am I trying to prove it to myself or the world? A little bit of both.”

Mellon left Jimmy Choo in 2011, with a payout worth a reported $135m. Her decision, she said, came after she was left “burnt out” by a string of private equity deals that left the company focused on cutting costs. She admits allowing the company to be bought by private equity firms was a “mistake” because Jimmy Choo ended up being “tossed around like a hot potato” with very little money invested. The Tamara Mellon brand was set up in 2013 and sold through retailers such as Neiman Marcus. However, it initially struggled and filed for bankruptcy in December. Mellon is now relaunching it as a direct-to-consumer business, selling only from a dedicated website, with the help of venture capital investment.

Last night saw Jimmy Choo and mytheresa.com host a star-studded intimate dinner at The Garden Museum, London to celebrate the launch of their exclusive Jimmy Choo x mytheresa.com ‘Glitter’ collection. A natural pairing, the Munich-based online retailer, known for its luxury fashion offering and one of the world’s leading footwear brands, Jimmy Choo will make the collection available from tomorrow on mytheresa.com.

Set in a wild flower meadow installation complete with foxgloves, bluebells, poppies and cow parsley, the modern stately dinner was a nod to The Chelsea Flower Show that is currently taking place in the city. Pierre Denis, CEO and Sandra Choi, Creative Director of Jimmy Choo hosted the dinner along with Michael Kliger, President of mytheresa.com. Among the guests was royalty, in the form of Princess Eugene of York, who all dined on Michelin-starred seasonal food brought to them by The Clove Club. The botanical parellels did not stop there, with a variety of bespoke cocktails from English Meadow Sours to Flowers at Midnight keeping the VIPs hydrated all evening, while Mimi Xu provided the music post dinner.

“Gardening is my secret love, my secret life,” said Sandra Choi, as she gazed around the dinner venue, a medieval church where cow parsley, foxglove, pansies and daisies sprouted from the center of mile-long tables and from dirt-filled boxes lining the stone walls and floor. The church looked as if it was bathed in sunset — even into late evening — thanks to a cleverly placed parabolic light.

All of this was to honor the Jimmy Choo ‘Glitter’ capsule collection; a collection that signifies a star-specked sky with gradient glitter from antique gold merging into dark anthracite blue. An exclusive line, it can only be found at mytheresa.com.

At dinner, guests dined on vegetarian selections including asparagus, rhubarb, broad beans and morels from the Michelin-starred Clove Club. The event unfolded at The Garden Museum, part of Lambeth Palace in London, the official English residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Comprising of both pumps and flats, as well as clutches to match, this romantic line will be a sure fire hit for all the weddings and events this summer. The pointed and slender toed ‘Romy’ pump in 100mm provides an opulent statement heel and is also available in a 85mm heel height.

For a contemporary range, Creative Director Choi has included flats in the line. The favorite being the ‘Gala’, a loafer-style pointed ballerina, which features a grosgrain bow at the front for ladylike appeal. Designed to be worn day to night, it is undoubtedly a decadent and glamorous flat.

To complete the capsule collection there is the addition of two hard-cased clutch bags in the form of the on-trend, boxy style ‘Celeste’ and the classic cylindrical ‘Trinket’ clutch. Thoroughly in keeping with the footwear, both are dusted in the ombre effect glitter and are large enough to stylishly fit all the necessities.

The Jimmy Choo “Glitter” collection is available exclusively at mytheresa.com from the 25th of May 2017 onwards.

The Reimann family, the reclusive German consumer goods billionaires who control JAB Holding are shifting priorities. The luxury shoe brand (our beloved) Jimmy Choo has announced that it was putting itself up for sale.

JAB owns 67.6 percent stake on Jimmy Choo which they acquired in 2011 for 540 million pounds or roughly $800 million then took it public in 2014. JAB is also undertaking what it called a strategic review of the Swiss leather goods brand Bally, “including a possible sale of the company.” A review of Belstaff, the British motocross-inspired brand acquired in 2008, is expected to follow. The possible sell-off of the luxury brands comes as JAB Holdings, which since 2012 has built a coffee and food empire in the US by acquiring American coffee brands which include Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Caribou Coffee and Keurig Green Mountain, agreed this month to buy the sandwich chain Panera for $7.5 billion which also includes debt.

According to documents scrounged up by several online sources, JAB has made significant investments in coffee and related areas in recent years and, as a result, now considers its investment in luxury as non-core.

JAB, which has its headquarters in Luxembourg, wants to focus on its investments in Coty, in which it has a 36.84 percent stake, and the numerous high-end coffee businesses, which also include Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Intelligentsia Coffee & Tea.

Shedding its investments in the three leather-goods companies would take JAB out of the fashion industry, ending an eight-year effort to build a viable luxury group to compete with the Big Three — LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Richemont and Kering — and possibly signaling further consolidation in an industry already wrestling with slowing growth and changing consumer tastes. The strategy shift also speaks to the increasing desire of consumers to spend money on experience — including on morning drinks of choice — instead of, say, handbags.

JAB entered the luxury market with fanfare in 2007 and soon snatched up brands such as the American-based designer Derek Lam; the Italian handbag label Zagliani (which was known back then for using Botox in its exotic-skin totes and purses to keep them supple), the British jeweler Solange Azagury-Partridge; and leather-goods names like Jimmy Choo, Bally and Belstaff, all under a new division called Labelux.

Only four years later, however, it sold its stakes in the Lam and Azagury-Partridge businesses to the brands’ founders, and in 2014 decided to refocus on leather goods, bringing the remaining brands directly under the control of JAB Holding (it closed Zagliani in 2015).

Jimmy Choo joins the likes of other luxury brands to be listed on the public market, riding a wave of accessories successes. Bally struggled to define itself in a crowded market, taking tentative steps in apparel without much impact. Belstaff, too, despite a much heralded campaign with David Beckham, found it difficult to break through.

Now, that grand experiment is apparently at an end.

According to the JAB announcement, there have not been any bids so far for Jimmy Choo, but the industry is bound to be watching closely for declarations of intent. This is especially the case given that footwear is something of a buzzing industry which department stores looking to compete over who can open the largest shoe floor. This title is now held by the Level Shoe District in Dubai, at 96,000 square feet (impressive!).

Indeed, since the news broke, the price of Jimmy Choo shares has climbed more than 9 percent. So what does this mean for us Jimmy Choo die-hards? It seems that only time will tell if there’s going to be a white knight to sweep JC off its feet and care for it like it deserves!

O-M-G. It is Christmas already? And by Christmas, you just know I’m referring to the Jimmy Choo Spring Summer 2017 Collection. Ooh la la! I am smitten! It all started with the teaser promo below:

And now they got the ever lovely Dakota Fanning to be the new face of the Spring Summer 2017 Collection! In the previous post, I talked about the Lolita 100 but nothing could have prepared me for their floral version of it. Just look at this beauty!

I just completely lapped up the website information as well. “Inspired by the natural grace of the Iris flower, the Lolita is an elegant and sophisticated sandal. With delicate straps which entwine around the foot and the ankle, with intricate arrangement of layered leather petals becoming a decorative corsage for the foot. The play of Mirror Leather with Vacchetta echo the colors and textures of the nature that inspires them. The upper of the Lolita is composed of 66 separate pieces which are intricately hand-stitched. Leather lined with a leather sole this sandal is must have item. Heel height measures 100 mm/3.9 inches. Made in Italy.” Isn’t that just inspired? Also, for those who aren’t into high heels but would just love to have this design anyway, the Lolita Iris design comes in flats!

The floral Lolita 100 is just begging to be paired with the Hummingbird Print Lockett Petite. This is truly the reason why us designer good aficionados can’t just keep with one color of a design we like. Last month, I was enraptured by the purple Lockett Petite. Today? I cannot wait to get my hands on the Hummingbird Print. Can you blame me? Look at it!

The beautiful thing is despite how the Hummingbird looks like it should be a lot more expensive than the solid colors, it isn’t. It’s still sold at the same price which is something we can all appreciate, right? Also, I don’t know if you’ve seen Dakota Fanning’s glamorous Jimmy Choo photo shoot but one particular photo cast a spell on me.

In the photo with her is the Keena 100. The cobalt blue really demands attention! The Keena 100 is a pair of Cobalt Suede Sandal Booties. The website spun me further with its description: Rich cut out detailing define the Keena sandal bootie. The upper is constructed from a velvety suede in a delicate laser cut design to imitate the look of feathers. The laces can be purely aesthetic, instead using the zip fastening at the back of the ankle for ease of fit. Leather lined and finished with a leather sole. Heel height measures 100 mm/3.9 inches. Any one of us would gladly pay the $1070 price tag, am I right or am I RIGHT?

I also really like the Iris version of the Artie. Artie is a practical yet timeless hobo bag, featuring a roomy interior with secure zipped closure. It features an exclusively designed detachable, woven leather shoulder strap which offers a comfortable and easy to carry shoulder drop as well as a longer, removable leather strap. This allows for the bag to be worn on the shoulder, both short and long, or across the body. Featuring our Jimmy Choo engraved metal pull, the zip has been further adorned with knotted leather laces, a Jimmy Choo embossed leather tag and Lockett studs, for a final touch of elevated luxury. The front of the bag features subtle seams echoing the pointed shape of the Lockett lock as well as a foil embossed Jimmy Choo logo for subtle brand identification. Internal suede-like lining keeps this style lightweight and one large slip pocket ensures your valuables are safe and close at hand. Made in Italy.Bag Measures: L 40 x H 28 x W 10cm

It’s going to hit you for about $1340 but it’s worth it. You always get what you paid for after all!